Passenger threatened to rape women on train

A MAN who threatened to rape female passengers on a late-night train has narrowly escaped a jail sentence.

As well as threatening women, Keith Hamilton caused offence to ethnic minorities and religious groups with his drunken, foul-mouthed ravings.

He was arrested when fellow passengers called police after Hamilton, 32, refused to stop shouting vile threats between Glasgow and Bathgate on November 14 last year.

Hamilton, of Heaney Avenue, Pumpherston, West Lothian, appeared for sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court on Thursday.

He earlier pleaded guilty to committing a statutory breach of the peace aggravated by religious and racial prejudice.

Hamilton was sentenced to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work under a community payback order and placed under social work supervision for a year.

Sheriff Peter Hammond told him he was guilty of “disgraceful and appalling conduct of a disgusting and offensive nature”. He added: “You have escaped on this occasion a prison sentence by the narrowest of margins.”